The present invention relates to a torsion bar spring arrangement for a wheel suspension of a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
In conventional torsion bar spring arrangements, the torsion bar spring is composed of only two components, namely a tubular spring and solid bar spring. The remaining components in the load path are designed to be absolutely rigid without affecting the overall spring constant of the system. For example, when a softer torsion bar spring needs to be realized, a first measure would include a reduction of the diameter of tubular spring and/or of the solid bar spring. However, the working capacity of the torsion bar would decrease by reducing the diameter, and the stresses would simultaneously increase disproportionately, so that the tubular spring and solid bar spring would have to be lengthened. However, such a change in length is not feasible due to the extremely critical space situation in the area of the wheel suspension. As a result, especially with the smaller vehicle production runs, where a reduction of the total spring stiffness is essential, such a rotary actuator can not be installed due to the high packing density.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to obviate prior art shortcomings and to provide an improved torsion bar spring arrangement for a wheel suspension of, in particular, a two-track vehicle, wherein the spring rate of the torsion spring can be additionally influenced by simple structural designs.